To understand some of the challenges around executive leadership with large-scale PLM initiatives, PTC’s Rob Leavitt asked Ridley about lessons learned from her work on PLM programs with a wide range of consumer goods, finance, and technology firms.

1. Global Services Insights
PLM Advocacy:
What Executive Buy-In Really Means
Cynthia Ridley heads the Innovation & Change Leadership
Practice for Kalypso, a fast-growing innovation and PLM
(Product Lifecycle Management) consulting firm. With more
than 20 years experience in engineering, operations, and
executive coaching, Ridley specializes in executive team
Cynthia Ridley
alignment, leadership development, and change manage-
Heads the Innovation & Change
ment for PLM and new product development initiatives. Leadership Practice for Kalypso
To understand some of the challenges around executive leadership with
large-scale PLM initiatives, PTC’s Rob Leavitt asked Ridley about lessons
learned from her work on PLM programs with a wide range of consumer
goods, finance, and technology firms. Here’s what she had to say:
Leavitt: The importance of executive sponsorship for PLM
is hardly a new or ignored topic. Why is it still so difficult
for companies to get this right?
Ridley: Everyone knows that executive sponsorship is important. But
simple sponsorship is not enough to ensure a successful program with
real business impact. The real challenge is having executive advocates
that are passionate about the initiative being successful, that constantly
share their vision, and that make it important to their direct reports. It’s
actually rare to have this kind of executive advocacy.
More often I see executives that approve the budget and think the
program is a good idea, but they also think it is someone else’s responsi-
bility to make it happen. They delegate their advocacy to someone lower
level and it doesn’t work. Or they don’t deal with resistance from peers or
others in upper management. And they don’t hold people accountable
for actually delivering against interim milestones.
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2. Leavitt: Is it simply a matter of time? Do executive
sponsors simply need to spend more time lobbying and About PTC Global Services
monitoring and demanding accountability for results? The 1,400 professionals at PTC Global
Ridley: Time is certainly an issue but they also need to know how to be an Services help the world’s leading manufac-
effective advocate. One thing that is seldom addressed in planning, for turing companies gain product and service
example, is building alignment at the senior management and executive advantage through solution strategy and
levels. How can you influence the right people to ensure their advocacy, design, process transformation, technology
too? This speaks to politics, power, and control across the organization configuration, and organizational training
– the things that usually matter most but are typically not included in and adoption. Our in-house experts and
project plans. premium services partners work overtime
to ensure the best possible results and
If you’re the advocate, you need to connect the dots for other executives
maximum return on investment.
and make the program relevant at the strategic level. You need to create
a vision for PLM that is connected to business strategy and provides a Learn more at PTC.com/consulting
reason for other executives to support the investment. This effort is often
For more Insights from the Global Services
short cut and you end up without real alignment. Without that alignment
team, please visit:
and that buy-in at the executive level, it’s much harder for programs like
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PLM that cut across different silos to succeed.
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Leavitt: But it takes more than just the vision, right?
Ridley: The vision is just the beginning. You also need to understand how
to bring the organization through a major change which usually requires
a continual effort to win advocates throughout the organization and
address the resistance that is always present.
This means building out maps of stakeholders, looking at the impact of About the Author
the new solutions on them, identifying advocates, understanding how
Rob Leavitt is Director of Thought Leadership
to influence different stakeholders, and building the right relationships
at PTC Global Services, the consulting arm
at the executive level. If you don’t win those advocates at the executive
of PTC. A long-time advisor to top tech-
and senior management levels you risk resistance that filters down to end
nology and IT services firms, Rob works with
users. End users key off middle management, which is often the most
PTC consultants, partners, and customers
resistant to change, so they need to hear from senior levels why this is so
to advance understanding of key issues and
important and how it will help the organization.
challenges in product development, manu-
Perhaps most important is addressing resistance immediately and facturing, and after-market service.
candidly. Leaders need to be strong but fair. No one wants to have these
Contact Rob at rleavitt@ptc.com
conversations but if you avoid them it’s only going to get worse. Resistance
is normal. You need to acknowledge that change may not be comfortable Follow Rob on Twitter at @PTC_Consulting
but that we still need to move forward. It’s up to the leaders to say “I know
you’re not happy but we still need you to change and this is why.”
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